Mexican French Toast is a delectable, sweet dish that is inspired by a classic Spanish recipe. Egg-coated bread is fried until crispy and then bathed in a wonderful Piloncillo syrup. They make for a scrumptious treat that you can have for breakfast, brunch, or dessert!

Thanks to Tom Thumb® for sponsoring this post.

What are Torrejas?

Mexican French Toast, also known as “Torrejas” (toh-reh-hass), consists of slices of bread that are lightly dipped in milk and then dipped into a fluffy raw egg mixture. They are then fried until the outside is slightly crispy, but the inside is still soft and fluffy. Once the fried slices have cooled a little, they are then covered in a delicious and aromatic syrup made with Piloncillo (Mexican dark sugar) and cinnamon.

How do you make Mexican French Toast?

This dish has two main components: the toast and the piloncillo syrup. The toast is made using thick slices of bread, around ⅔ of an inch thick so that they can soak up all the ingredients without coming apart. The bread is soaked in milk and then coated in beaten eggs before being fried. They are then soaked in the syrup before serving.

The piloncillo syrup is made with water, piloncillo, and cinnamon. All the ingredients are placed in a pot to cook. The chunk of piloncillo will dissolve and combine with the water to form a syrup. The end result should be a little runnier than maple syrup. Once the slices of bread are fried, they are dunked in the syrup before plating. At serving time, more syrup is drizzled on top of the finished Torrejas.

This recipe is a fun one to involve the kids with. I definitely recommend you involve the whole family the next time you make this!

Where do Torrejas come from?

Mexican French Toast, which we call “Torrejas,” is one of the many dishes that Mexico inherited from Spain. The Spanish version (they call them “Torrijas”) was known as a convenient way to use leftover bread, and it also became a popular dish during Lent, since it was a meal that was high in calories without using meat. It is also popular for Easter and Christmas. It originally wasn’t a sweet dish, but nowadays it is mostly served topped with sugar or syrup and eaten as a sweet breakfast or a dessert. We don’t know for sure when this dish was first made, but there is evidence of it being used as far back as the Middle Ages.

Once in Mexico, this recipe was adapted to use local ingredients. The syrup is made using a Mexican dark sugar known as piloncillo (pee-lon-see-yoh), and different regions in Mexico prepare this dish differently. Some recipes will add other aromatics to the syrup like anise, clove spice, orange peel, and more. Others will use honey instead of the piloncillo syrup. The bread can be decorated with sesame seeds, while some cooks forgo the syrup entirely and only top the toast with sugar. The type of bread used can also vary from region to region.

Mexican French Toast for Brunch, and More Ideas!

This is a fantastic recipe to make for brunch during the fall season. I found my recipe ingredients, like exclusive O Organics®, at Tom Thumb®. Their allows shoppers to find inspiring recipes like this one, and also makes shopping for them a breeze with shoppable recipes. Visit to get inspired! You can even take a Virtual Cooking Class with a Celebrity Chef!

How to make Mexican French Toast

Preparation Time: 15 Minutes
Cooking Time: 25 Minutes
Total Time: 40 Minutes
Servings: 10 (10 slices of bread)

Ingredientes:

For the Piloncillo Syrup:
12 oz. Piloncillo*
1 cinnamon Stick
1 cup water
For the Torrejas:
10 thick slices of bread (Bolillo bread or Italian bread), about ⅔ of an inch thick (SEE NOTES)
1½ cup of O Organics® milk
3 O Organics® eggs
1 pinch of salt
2 cups of vegetable oil, for frying

Instructions:

Place the piloncillo, cinnamon stick, and water into a medium size saucepan, turn the heat to medium-low, and allow the piloncillo to melt and form a light syrup. This will take about 20 minutes. Once the syrup is done, remove it from the heat and set it aside.

Preheat a large griddle to medium-high heat. Lightly toast the bread slices until they have a light golden color. This will help them to keep their shape as they soak up the wet ingredients. Set aside.

While the piloncillo syrup is cookimg, separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt. Set the egg yolks aside in a small bowl.

Beat the egg whites using an electric mixer for about 4-5 minutes, until they start forming peaks. After this, continue beating and slowly add the egg yolks to the mixture, one by one, until they are well integrated into the egg mixture. This will take about 1-2 minutes.

Place the vegetable oil in a medium-sized frying pan and turn the heat to medium-high heat while we prepare the bread.

Pour the milk into a medium bowl, then very quickly dip one slice of bread into the milk, making sure the bread doesn’t absorb too much milk.

Next, dip that slice of bread into the egg mixture to completely coat it (you can use kitchen tongs for this). Proceed to place the bread into the hot oil in the skillet.

Fry the bread for about 30 seconds, then flip to cook the other side. The batter should have a medium-light golden color. Once it is done, place the toast on a plate covered with paper towels (to absorb the excess oil).

Keep cooking the rest of the slices following the same process until all of them are fried. If you’re using a large (12-in.) skillet/pan, you can cook several slices at the same time.
Once all the pieces of toast are cooked, quickly dip them into the Piloncillo Syrup, serve them on plates, and pour a little more of the syrup over each Torreja. You can serve them hot, warm, or at room temperature. Enjoy!

Notes:

If you can’t find Piloncillo in your area, you can substitute it with 1 cup of sugar cane Molasses or 1 cup of brown sugar. The resulting syrup should feel like a lighter version of a pancake or maple syrup.

If you want your syrup more aromatic and flavorful, add 2 spice cloves, a pinch of anise seeds, and 1-star anise spice. Some people also add orange peel/orange zest or even whole allspice berries to the syrup. You can get very creative with this syrup.

When making the syrup, make sure the heat does not go beyond medium heat (medium-low is preferred). If the heat is too high the syrup will boil and reduce too much, so keep the heat low.

Some people make Mexican French Toast without the syrup, and only dust the toast with sugar (or cinnamon sugar). This is a good option that saves you time but is still very tasty.

Some cooks like to add vanilla extract and even orange peel to the milk. Dipping the bread in this milk mixture can enhance the flavor compared to using just milk.

Use bread that has a dense crumb texture. Nowadays many bakeries that sell bolillos offer bolillo rolls that are very light and airy. These will absorb too much of the liquid ingredients and the end result will be very soggy. You need bread that will hold its shape during the cooking process and at serving time, so a loaf of bread with a denser crumb is preferred.

French Baguette is a firm bread, but its crumb is a little chewy and has many air holes, that is why I recommend the Italian loaf bread as a substitute for the bolillos. It has a crumb that is soft but still dense, making it perfect for this recipe. Another suitable substitute is Brioche bread.

Day-old bread is better for this recipe since it will be dried and thus hold its shape better when soaking the ingredients. You can slice the bread the night before and leave it on your counter covered with a kitchen napkin so it can dry a little.

There is a variation of Torrejas called Torrejas Secas (“dry torrejas”), where the slices of bread are not dipped in the milk. Instead, they go straight from toasting to being dipped in the egg mixture.

This dish is popular throughout Latin America, where it is commonly made for Christmas and Holy Week (Semana Santa).

This post is sponsored by Tom Thumb®. All opinions expressed are my own.

Buen Provecho!

Mely Martínez

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